


Long Live

by fireflyslove



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Timelines, Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Avengers: Endgame fix it, Bisexual Bucky Barnes, Bisexual Steve Rogers, F/M, M/M, Multi, Period-Typical Homophobia, Period-Typical Sexism, Polyamory, Polyamory Negotiations, Reunions, World War Threesome
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-30
Updated: 2019-04-30
Packaged: 2020-02-10 09:50:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,784
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18658009
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fireflyslove/pseuds/fireflyslove
Summary: Steve from 2023 creates an alternate timeline when he goes back in time.OrPeggy gets a second (and third) chance at happiness.





	Long Live

**Author's Note:**

> Who's predictable? 
> 
> That's right, it me.
> 
> Hopefully this doesn't turn out identical to This Love/Treacherous/Safe and Sound. But honestly, even if it does, who the fuck cares. 
> 
> Technically this is a sequel to The Lucky One, but it's not required reading, all the important information is in here. (Read: I copy pasted dialogue directly). But you should totally still read it. It's a delightful Endgame fix it.
> 
> Y'all can find me on the internet @fireflyslove and sometimes @capsbum

Getting back to America was like a shock to the system. Everywhere in Europe there was some sign of the war, burnt out buildings, shells of cars, troops of soldiers. But here… it seemed like the war had never happened. She knew that wasn’t true, of course. For one thing, there was a suspicious lack of men older than boys and younger than grandfathers, and much more black bunting on porches than there ought to be. But still, the buildings were whole, the people were rosy cheeked and didn’t have that haunted look to their eyes. It was like stepping into another world. 

For her part, Peggy tried to pretend everything was normal. People always seemed to go out of their way to thank a man who was even remotely within the age to have gone to war, but they never seemed to get the idea that a woman would have. Not that she particularly wanted the attention, but it stung, just a little. 

So she went about setting up a life in New York, the SSR office was based here. She still hadn’t decided if she was going to stay in the service, but for now, it would work. Trying to find an apartment that was both affordable and not in a less-than-desirable neighborhood was proving to be difficult, so she was currently living at the Tierney Hotel. 

And tonight, Peggy had a date.

She took her time getting ready. Every curl was perfectly rolled, every swipe of makeup perfectly applied. She wore the Red Dress again.

The Stork Club was busy that night, but she still found a place at the bar, and ordered a whiskey, neat. 

“You meeting someone?” he asked, turning to the bottles.

“I hope so,” Peggy replied.

The bartender looked at her with sympathy and brought two.

She tossed the first one back, and regarded the amber liquid in the second, tilting it in the dim light of the bar. It glinted dully. A sudden loud noise from across the room made her look over her shoulder and…

Steve?

There was Steve, standing in the entrance, looking back at her. She set the drink down on the counter, and looked away for just a moment before daring to look again. He was still there. She slid money blindly out of her wallet, probably far too much, and put it on the counter. He didn’t move as she crossed the room, and even when she was standing less than a foot from him, she still didn’t quite believe he was real. 

“Steve?” she asked, almost a whisper. 

“Hi, Peg,” he said.

“How… how is this possible?” she asked, pressing a hand to his chest. It was firm and unyielding under her hand. “You put the plane in the water.”

“I did,” Steve said. “I’ll tell you everything, but we have to go somewhere more private.”

“Of course,” Peggy said. She pulled her wrap from her bag, and put it around her shoulders. “My hotel is just down the street.”

They walked there in silence, and Peggy kept stealing glances out of the corner of her eye at him. There was something different about him. He seemed older, although she wasn’t sure how that was possible. 

Once they were safely ensconced in her room, she went to the sideboard and poured another drink. She wasn’t intending to drink it all, but it helped to have something to hold. Steve, for his part, sat down in a chair at the small table. She handed him a glass and took the other chair, then looked at him expectantly.

“I’m not your Steve,” he said.

“Excuse me?” 

“Well, not anymore. I’m from the future.”

“You’re from the future,” she repeated.

“About eighty years,” Steve said.

“And you’ve come back somehow… why?” Peggy asked. This seemed both incredibly preposterous and incredibly probable. 

“To see you,” Steve said. “I’ve already created a half dozen alternate timelines.”

“We never find you, do we?”

“Not until 2012,” Steve said. “Which is exactly why I’m here. I didn’t have a chance to be happy with you, but I’ll be damned if I can’t make at least one of me.”

Peggy took a moment to process this. It explained the differences, why Steve looked older, why his clothes were not  _ quite  _ right. But… sixty-odd years? And she just left him in the water? To freeze. And now she had a chance to be with him again, he was sitting right here, in front of her. He could...

“You could stay,” Peggy started to say, but interrupted herself before the sentence was even finished. “No, of course you couldn’t. You have a life there, friends and family, I’m sure.”

“Exactly,” Steve said with a sad smile.

“Tell me, are you at least happy? Did you ever find someone?” Peggy asked. It was more than she wanted to know, but she had to. 

“I did,” Steve said. 

“I’m happy for you,” Peggy said. She was, in a way, but resentment was still a sour taste in her mouth. 

Steve took a sip of his drink, and closed his eyes. “Do you have paper and a pen?” he asked, opening them. 

She nodded, and pulled one off the nearby desk, handing them to him. He scribbled something down, and then passed it back to her. It was a set of coordinates. Somewhere in the high North Atlantic, if she wasn’t mistaken.

“That’s where they found the Valkyrie,” Steve said. “I’m not sure if it’s there now, or if it drifted, but it gives you somewhere to start.”

“If I do this, you’ll never get to 2012,” Peggy said. 

“I know. But since I’m sitting here now, that means whatever I’m doing is creating a new timeline, one that runs parallel to mine. I think. If I think about it too hard, I get a headache,” Steve said.

“Is that all?” Peggy asked. Somehow, she didn’t think it was.

“No,” Steve said, and went through three more glasses of brandy while he detailed exactly what Hydra had done to the SSR and then later, SHIELD. What Arnim Zola had done, was doing, and would do. All while it was under her watch. “And in the end, I’m pretty certain they did something to you.”

“What?” Peggy asked, afraid of the answer but needing it anyway.

“I’m not sure exactly, but in the end, you have dementia, and you can’t remember much past 1945,” he said. 

A knot formed in Peggy’s stomach, “Fuck,” she muttered.

“Exactly,” Steve said. 

“I knew Zola wasn’t reliable,” she said at last. “That’s… a lot to take in.”

Steve tossed back the rest of his drink. “That’s not quite all of it.”

“Oh?” 

“Bucky didn’t die when he fell from the train,” Steve said. “Hydra has him and they’re turning him into a brainwashed assassin as we speak.”

“Oh,  _ Steve, _ ” Peggy said, leaning forward and taking his hands in hers. “I’m so sorry.”

Steve looked up at her through his lashes. “I can’t stay here, but I need you to save him. For him and for the me that’s here now.”

“Of course,” Peggy said. “I can’t leave anyone in the clutches of Hydra, and certainly not Sergeant Barnes.” She had only met the man a few times, and mostly on occasions when he was skulking in the background while she was with the Commandos. She had gotten the impression that he resented her for something, but never could figure out what.

“Thank you,” Steve said. He looked over at the clock on the wall. 

“You have to go back, don’t you?” Peggy asked, her heart cracking.

“I do. But first… can I get that dance?” Steve asked. 

“Of course,” Peggy said. “I’m afraid I don’t have any music.”

“That’s all right,” Steve said. “We can make do.”

He pulled her into him, and they swayed in silence. His face was buried in her hair, and it felt suspiciously like he was crying. Well, she was too. This was more than she had ever dreamed might happen, and now she had a chance to… do something. 

They stayed like that for a long while, until she broke the silence. “You learned to dance.”

“I’ve had some time,” Steve said. “Get used to this body and all.”

Peggy pulled back, suddenly needing to be separate. She wiped at her eyes with her hands, willing the tears away. You need to go. Before I beg you to stay.”

“I don’t know if I could say no to that,” Steve said, his voice low and quiet.

“And I don’t want you to stay. You have a life and a love to return to,” Peggy said. “Go and make her as happy as the you who’s here is going to make me.”

“Him,” Steve said.

“I’m sorry?” 

“Ah, him. It’s him, not her,” Steve said.

“Oh,” Peggy said. “Interesting. Then go, Steve. Go be with him and keep him safe and happy.”

Steve smiled, a wide, genuine thing. “I’d give a lot to see the two of you in a room together when he isn’t trying badly to flirt with you because he’s insanely jealous.”

Who? But then… Steve had been very specific about him. If Steve was in the twenty first century, then it wasn’t unreasonable that he was too. 

“Barnes?” Peggy asked. “Oh! Well, that certainly explains some things.” Like the resentment and jealousy she’d sensed coming off the man during the war. 

“I’ve loved you both for a long time,” Steve said. Peggy felt a knife twist in her heart at that bald statement. “Hopefully all of you in this time can work that out to something.”

“I look forward to it,” Peggy said, actually meaning it. “Now go!”

Steve looked down at his wrist, and tapped a few buttons. A suit deployed out of nowhere, and then he was

Gone. 

Peggy sat down in the chair he had been in heavily. It was still warm from his body heat. That had all been a bit… well, it had been a lot. 

But there was nothing she could do at this exact moment. If she could get a hold of Stark… he was still out looking for Steve. And fuck it, she wanted to be there when they found him. But that couldn’t happen until tomorrow. Or… once she regarded the clock, later today. 

For now. Well, for now she was going to have a good cry about losing Steve again, before she went and found him.

She shucked her dress and shoes carelessly onto the floor, wiped most of her makeup off with a wipe, and then collapsed into the bed, curled around a pillow, and somehow, fell asleep.

  
  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> I can be found anywhere a time travels @fireflyslove


End file.
